Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Pernil
Puerto Rico's holiday centrepiece: a bone-in pork shoulder seasoned to the core with garlic, oregano, and adobo, slow-roasted until tender with crackling cuerito.
Puerto Rican · medium · serves 10
prep 30 min · cook 360 min
~898 cal · 98g protein · 3g carbs · 52g fat · 0g fiber · 1g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pernil is the centrepiece of a Puerto Rican celebration, a hulking bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder seasoned deep into the meat with garlicky and roasted low and slow for hours until it is meltingly tender and its thick skin puffs and crisps into cuerito. It is the roast everyone waits for at Christmas and family gatherings, and the crackling is heartily fought over.
The secret is time and seasoning. Deep cuts are made all over the meat and a paste of crushed garlic, dried oregano, salt, pepper, sazón, and sour orange (or vinegar) is pressed into every incision, then the pork rests at least overnight so the seasoning penetrates. It roasts at a moderate temperature for hours, and a final blast of high heat crisps the skin.
Pernil is almost always served with arroz con gandules, and any leftovers make the best sandwiches. A turkey version, pernil de pavo, is common in homes that do not eat pork.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
8 lbs bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder
12 cloves garlic, mashed
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp sazón with
1/4 cup sour orange juice (or white vinegar with a little orange)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp pimiento-stuffed olives, minced (optional)
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
Instructions
1
Make an adobo paste from the garlic, oregano, sazón, sour orange, olive oil, olives, salt, and pepper.
2
Make deep incisions all over the meat just under the skin, then press the paste deep into every cut and rub the rest over the flesh, keeping the skin clean and dry.
✎ Chef’s note
Season into the cuts, not just the surface, and rest the pork at least 12 hours (up to 2 days); this is what seasons pernil all the way through.
3
Refrigerate uncovered at least overnight so the seasoning penetrates and the skin dries.
4
Roast skin-side up at 300 to 325F for about 5 to 6 hours, until the meat pulls from the bone and reaches 180 to 190F.
5
Raise the oven to 450F (or blast the removed skin) for about 10 minutes to puff and crisp the cuerito. Rest, then pull the pork and serve with arroz con gandules.
San Juan Christmas tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Juan. The earliest written mofongo recipe is in El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueno of 1859, the island's first cookbook. Sofrito does most of the rest of the work in this kitchen, and alcapurrias, often taken for plantain fritters, are actually made from grated green banana and yautia.
🗺️
Puerto Rico. The sofrito here is recaito, and it is greener than the Cuban and Dominican versions because of the culantro and ajies dulces in it. Names matter too: pernil is the roast shoulder, while lechon asado is the whole pig turned over coals along the road to Guavate, and arroz con gandules uses pigeon peas rather than any bean.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Puerto Rico
MofongoFried green plantains mashed with garlic and crackling pork, mounded and filled with garlicky shrimp or stew.
MallorcaA soft, buttery coiled sweet bread, pressed warm and snowed with powdered sugar, the pride of Puerto Rican panaderías at breakfast.
Arroz con GandulesRice cooked with pigeon peas, sofrito, and pork in one pot, forming a prized crust, Puerto Rico's national dish.
Browse all Puerto Rico recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Puerto Rico meal
CoquitoDrink
TemblequeDessert
Arroz con GandulesLunch
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Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Pernil?
Puerto Rico's holiday centrepiece: a bone-in pork shoulder seasoned to the core with garlic, oregano, and adobo, slow-roasted until tender with crackling cuerito.
Where does Pernil come from?
Pernil is a Puerto Rican dish from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Can Pernil be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pernil recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pernil safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pernil take to make?
About 390 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 360 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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